No,
this title doesn’t refer to me.
So,
it's taken me a while to get back to my blog since coming back from
China. I had an stressful awesome time in Guangzhou, but now I am
back to that U.S. school grind – it's better and worse; I don't
love my surroundings nearly as much, but my professors here don't use
insults as motivation...
*reminiscent
photo gallery*
 |
| 广州市人民政府 |
 |
| 我朋友（许雪真）与我 |
 |
| 广州市 |
 |
| 广东省的农村 |
 |
| "The Secret of Groping" is apparently pork. |
市场
珠江
广州塔
But
anyways, I'm coming back at y'all with a funny little piece. If you look at the blog that I kept (poorly) while in China, this is the same as the only piece I posted in there. I'll have more new ones soon! Hopefully, they'll come out every Wednesday.
By
the way, I just checked my stats on this blog, and I have to be
honest (不瞒你说）I
cannot believe that almost 200 people have seen this blog (or fewer
people chose to look at this blog multiple times, which is even
better!); this is such a random blog; I don't think I know even 20
people who are willing to talk with me about Ancient Chinese
literature. Hooray for the internet! Special shout-out to everyone outside of the US and UK who's been looking at this -- I never expected to go global. :)
This
piece is another funny one, but it’s pretty universal in its moral,
and 很有道理
in
my personal opinion. It’s about a remonstrator who knows how
to turn ridicule into morality, and also avoid the death that many of
his fellow remonstrators probably faced for their crimes.
趙簡子舉兵而攻齊 (Zhao
Jianzi Mobilizes Troops to Attack Qi)
趙簡子舉兵而攻齊。令軍中有敢諫者罪至死。被甲之士名曰公盧，望見簡子大笑。簡子
曰：“子何笑？”對曰：“臣有宿笑。”簡子曰：“有以解之則可，無以解之則死。”對曰：“當
桑之時，臣鄰家夫與妻俱之田。見桑中女，因往追之，不能得；還反，其妻怒而去之。臣
笑其曠也。”簡子曰：今吾伐國失國。是吾曠也。”於是罷師而歸。
Zhao
Jianzi mobilized troops to attack Qi. [He] commanded that anyone in
the army who dared to remonstrate would face punishment reaching
death. An armor-wearing officer was named Gong Lu； [he] viewed Jianzi
and laughed.
Jianzi said, “Why are you laughing?”
[Gong Lu] replied, “I have an old joke.”
Jianzi said, “If you have the means to explain it, then do so; if you do not have the means to explain it, then [you will be] put to death.”
[Gong Lu] replied, “At the time for harvesting mulberry leaves, my neighboring family, husband and wife, were together in their fields. [The husband] saw a woman among the mulberry trees; thereupon [he] went to pursue her; [he] could not obtain [her]. When he returned, his wife was angry and made him leave. I laugh at that desolate [man].
Jianzi said, “Now, if I attack a country [I will] lose a country. Then I am the desolate [man].” Thereupon [he] disbanded his army and returned home.
“What
do we learn from this?” you may ask. Well, we learn that you should
never chase a woman through mulberry trees (especially if you're married!), and also that if you’re a king, feudal lord, or
otherwise have massive amounts of money and armies at your disposal,
don’t be greedy and attack your neighbor.
